This one's a winner, though. I happen to like the result a lot better than the last disjointed piece of fuck I ground out, though.
Prompt: Genderbend either Johan or Juudai, and write your OT3 (Juudai/Yubel/Johan).
(Warning for very slight, non-explicit sexuality.)
Johanna almost made herself give up at first. It scared her how quickly she relaxed into his touch, how much she loved to see his mouth quirk into a smile or run her hands over his shoulders in that ever-supportive way. She tried not to notice how eagerly she came home every day, exhausted from a long day's worth of dueling. Her eyes skimmed the small house, searching for Juudai even as she took her key out of the lock.
She could sit on the sofa with Juudai for hours, talking, watching TV, doing nothing. He would lean heavily, wearily against her, and she would just appreciate the comfortable weight of his head against her chest. Sometimes after he came back, unpredictably as ever, he invited her into the shower with him, letting her carefully ease off his shirt and wash away the tension and soreness that stained his skin. He was always there when she needed him, always before she knew she needed him.
It was frightening at first. Eventually, the similarity started coming up as a joke between the two of them, with increasing frequency once she had made clear her acceptance of the whole thing.
"Jeez," she always said, stretching on the couch as credits rolled on the TV and cards and spirits were spread out all over the room, "If I'd known we were gonna be together so much, I should've told you to fuse me and you together, too."
"Yubel wouldn't like that," Juudai would reply, "she's still not sure how she feels about competition, you know."
"Well, now that you say that, you should definitely do it." And they'd both laugh; at first, only Johanna, but in time, Juudai learned to deal with his life for the ridiculous farce comedy it was and joined her. Her laugh was too powerful and captivating to leave by itself; so much less fragile than his.
He knew what he had with Yubel was precious, and he was prepared to protect it, but he did not seem afraid of needing it anymore, Johanna thought to herself. She couldn't think of anything else that made her feel such cold fear in her stomach anymore. Sometimes she would watch Yubel manifest from across a room, each contained, disturbingly graceful little movement, and the hair on the back of her neck would rise because she knew she was wearing an expression to mirror hers, once upon a time. There was something she could not stand to lose, and she needed it every day, and fear of the consequences would never make her able to give it up.
She remembered pamphlets from her first year of high school that listed warning signs. They said, "You know it's addiction when it changes your life." She remembered that line and almost didn't agree to give Juudai the key to her house. But she realized her life was changing anyway since far too long ago to be certain anymore, and it didn't matter that she'd never have to go back to Duel Academia to see why. The moment Juudai came over and offered to let her speak to Yubel on equal ground, she gave up for good, recalling another silly proverb: "You can choose to start, but you need help to stop."
Johanna didn't want to quit anymore.